Getting married in France: the 2026 guide

Tens of thousands of foreign couples marry in France every year, and a large majority of them do not marry legally here at all. That distinction is the single most useful thing to understand before you start, and almost nothing written for couples explains it clearly.

This guide sets out what a French wedding actually requires: the residency rule that catches most people out, when to come, what each region costs, and how the twelve months before the day are usually spent.

The residency rule, which is the whole problem

To be married by a French *mairie*, at least one of the couple — or one of their parents — must have been resident in that commune for 30 days without interruption immediately before the banns are published. Not thirty days spread over a year. Thirty continuous days, evidenced with utility bills or a landlord's attestation, in that specific town hall's jurisdiction.

There is no tourist exemption and no way to buy past it. A wedding planner who tells you otherwise is describing a symbolic ceremony without using the word.

For a couple flying in for a week, this is not a hurdle to clear but a wall. Which is why the standard arrangement among foreign couples is:

• The legal marriage at home, usually a ten-minute appointment at a registry office weeks earlier.
• The ceremony in France, symbolic, with a celebrant you choose.

That combination removes the entire French administrative file. It also removes every constraint on where and when: a symbolic ceremony can be held in a vineyard at seven in the evening, which a *mairie* ceremony emphatically cannot.

If you do qualify for a civil marriage

If one of you genuinely lives here, the file is roughly this:

• Birth certificates issued within the last six months, with a sworn translation.
• Certificat de coutume and certificat de célibat, issued by your consulate in France.
• Proof of address covering the 30-day residency.
• Attestation of your witnesses, between two and four of them.
• Banns published at the *mairie* for ten days before the ceremony.

Allow three months for the file even when everything is in order. French town halls do not treat wedding paperwork as urgent, and August is largely a write-off.

Choosing the region, which decides the budget

France is not one destination. The gap between a wedding in the Dordogne and the same wedding on the Riviera is a factor of three, for the same number of guests.

The Dordogne and the Alps are where the same money buys twice the wedding. The Riviera is where the venue costs more than everything else combined.

When to come

September into the first week of October is the answer for most of France. The heat has gone, the harvest is in, the light is low by seven, and you are past the peak of the season.

July and August are the months couples pick and photographers dread. In the south, the temperature sits above 32°C until well past six in the evening, which is unpleasant in formal clothes and visible in every photograph. Lavender, if that is why you chose Provence, is cut in the first days of August.

May and June give long evenings and a real chance of rain, which in a country of stone courtyards is less of a problem than it sounds.

Winter is genuinely worth considering for small numbers. Venues are half price, Colmar and Strasbourg are at their best, and a château in January with a fire lit photographs better than the same château in a heatwave.

What it actually costs

Figures below are for 60 guests in Provence, in high season, and are what couples actually pay rather than what a first quote says.

An elopement for two is a different order of magnitude: €2,500 to €7,000 covers the celebrant, a photographer for four to five hours, flowers and somewhere memorable to stay.

The twelve months before

12 months out. Choose the region before the venue. Decide whether the ceremony is legal or symbolic, and if legal, start the residency question immediately.

10 months. Visit two or three venues, or send someone. Ask about the curfew, the corkage, the wet-weather plan and whether there is a genuine indoor alternative for 60 people — not a marquee you would have to hire.

8 months. Book the photographer and the caterer. Good ones in Provence and the Loire are taken 12 to 18 months ahead for September Saturdays.

6 months. Send invitations. Foreign guests need this long to find flights they can afford.

3 months. File the paperwork if you are marrying legally. Confirm the running order against the sunset time for your actual date, not an approximation.

1 month. Final headcount, seating, and the timing walk-through. This is where the photography schedule gets fixed to the minute against the light.

Getting the photographs right

Two things determine the pictures more than anything else, and both are decided months before the day.

The ceremony time. A ceremony at two in the afternoon in July puts the vows under vertical sun and the portraits in the worst light of the day. The same ceremony at five gives you golden light for the group photographs and an hour with the couple afterwards. Symbolic ceremonies can be set at any hour, which is one more argument for them.

The venue's rules on access. Some estates forbid photography in the state rooms; some forbid flash indoors entirely; some close the gardens at a fixed hour regardless of what you have paid. These are written into your hire contract rather than set by any national rule, and the answers change the running order completely. We contact the venue as soon as a booking is made rather than discovering it on the day — see the wedding page for how that works in practice.

A note on the drone question

Drone use over most of France requires the operator to hold a licence and, near any built-up area, a prefectoral authorisation obtained in advance. Historic monuments, national estates and much of the Riviera coastline are permanently restricted. A supplier who offers drone footage over a listed château without mentioning paperwork is either licensed and has done it, or is planning to fly illegally on your wedding day. It is worth asking which.